Warnaco closing will cost Milford 208 jobs

Updated 9:21 pm, Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Just one month after New York-based PVH closed the $2.9 billion acquisition of clothing brand owner Warnaco, the company announced it is shutting down its Milford operation, leaving 208 without jobs.

The merger with PVH brought the two owners of the Calvin Klein brand under one roof, but the honeymoon ended abruptly late last month during an analyst conference when executives for PVH said that Warnaco would be a drag on earnings.

"Having now owned the business for about 45 days, we believe that additional investments above our initial expectations are required to achieve our goal of rebuilding the global Calvin Klein jeanswear and underwear businesses," Emanuel Chirico, chairman and CEO, said in the company's earnings report on March 28. "Therefore, we see 2013 as a year of investment and transition for the Warnaco business."

Chirico provided a list of areas where investment and improvement was needed, including enhancing infrastructure and marketing.

"Given these additional investments, we now project that the overall impact of the Warnaco transaction will be dilutive to 2013 earnings per share on a non-GAAP basis by approximately 25 cents."

Warnaco filed a mass layoff notice for its operation at 470 Wheelers Farms Road with the state shortly after the earnings report and said none of the 208 employees would be offered jobs with the company in other locations. The first round of layoffs is expected to begin in June.

"I am greatly disappointed by the job losses at the company and for the employees whose lives will be painfully affected," Blake said in an email on Wednesday. "The City of Milford will work with the [Department of Economic and Community Development] and the local business community to provide support to the employees."

Calls to Warnaco, which has been an institution in Connecticut for more than 100 years, were not returned Wednesday.

The company was founded in 1874 by the Warner brothers in New York who designed and made corsets, according to the Bridgeport Library's historical collection. By 1876, the brothers had moved their operations to Bridgeport, where they employed thousands.

However, the company was acquired through a hostile takeover in 1986 and its corporate headquarters returned to New York in the 1990s, while moving other office functions to Milford. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2001, emerging in 2003.